Embellished shoulder

 Another embellished shoulder top I did back in 2011...

DIY: Basic Cubic Ottoman from wooden crate

.: Ottoman After:.

.:Crate Before:.

Materials needed:
-Wooden Crate (Any dimension)
-Piece of Plywood (Saw a piece of 1/4 inch plywood to cover up the crate if it has an open side)
-Glue (All-purpose is ok)
-Felt (Thick enough for padding the sides)
-2 inch foam (The kind for padding sofas, to make the "seat") I also padded the bottom side with 1/4 inch foam (I used a kitchen knife to cut the foam & scissors to cut the felt)
-Staples, Nails (Let's say I want a staple gun for christmas)
-Fabric (Sofa quality, but thick curtain fabric should do), Matching Thread.

I won't talk about dimensions, since it entirely depends on the type of crate you can lay your hands on!

Step 1: Close up the crate by nailing the plywood. Step 2: Measure& cut the foam and felt for each side

Step 3: Glue the padding materials. A small amount is enough

From here on, it seems like I'm missing a few photos (oops!). Step 4: Sew a cover, but making sure the sides are slightly longer than the actual height of the ottoman, so you can tuck the excess fabric under and staple it in place. Step 5: To make the bottom side, you can go lazy easy like me and simply sew a square piece of fabric and glue it. Or go with a suggestion I had [oh yeah, this ottoman gave way to an animated discussion on the design, the making of, the choice of color, the... pretty much anything! It was a Freakin I’m not doing another project with you again fun family DIY=)], which was to make use of rubber strips to make "legs" for the ottoman.

We've been enjoying this ottoman very much at home, especially on movie nights. And talks of making a second one might or might not have been heard...If any family member is reading this, you know who you are, YOU can add the piping, the tufting, the legs...

Door stopper changes clothes

.:Door Stopper Before:.

.:Door Stopper After:.

I have had a sack of sand that serves me as a door stopper for ever and much like throw pillows, it changes dress often. For now it's burlap and stenciled LiveYourStyle, sewed as a pillow-case. I painted it with Fevicryl acrylic colors for fabric. A custom mix grey. The stencil was bought at Mr Bricolage, I was too lazy to go make my own. The burlap is actually from a re-purposed gift bag. The first few letters are kinda smudged, coz I made the rookie mistake of using too much paint on my brush. It really is better to "layer on paint" from a dry brush. By the way, just like whitewashing, stenciling is way too addictive. You get crazy ideas to stencil everything.

DIY Embellished Shoulder Top

Turning a plain tee into an embellished one using custom shoulder pads...

...with embroidered sequins and beads.

Step 1&2: Measure the length you want the shoulder pad to be on the front of your top. Ply a sheet of paper in two. Draw the outline of the shoulder pad and cut.


Step 3: Using your stencil, trace another similar shape on a sketch pad (Keep your stencil for later use*). Roughly sketch the design you want to create with your sequins& beads. This will be your reference.

Step 4: Transfer your design on your fabric (There are several methods, you can trace your design on tracing paper and simply pin it to the fabric, or use carbon paper or use a 4b pencil like I did to mark out the lines where to sew).

Step 5: Patiently sew on the sequins and beads. It took me 10 hours to complete both! But it could have been done in less, depending on the kind of sequins you use(if it comes already threaded or not) and the way of stitching(I double stitched each bead!) ..and how quick you are of course. I included pictures of some of the various methods.

1) Sew a bead on top of a sequin to hold it in place

2) Sew in between threaded beads

3) Sew one bead at a time

4) Sew one sequin at a time making sure each overlaps the other

5) Sew threaded sequins

(Via Marshall Cavendish 'The Complete Encyclopedia of Crafts')

Step 6: Cut out the shapes leaving a 1cm seam allowance, to which you snip small V shapes.

Step 7: Using the *stencil, cut out two other similar pieces (for the back of each shoulder pads). With the right sides facing each other, pin and tack. Machine sew, but leave an opening big enough for you to flip them inside out. You will hand stitch them closed.


Step 8: Iron on reverse to flatten the pads before pinning them into place. Then hand stitch for them to stay put.

Voilà!

What I learned along the way: I would use a lighter fabric to make the reverse sides of the shoulder pads, just so it isn't too thick.

DIY Organza Ribbon Cuff

I've been gifted a whole new batch of ribbons recently. So excited to get crafty with them! I made an embroidered cuff bracelet using a piece of teal organza ribbon...

I am a complete novice at this(I guess it shows eh) so I had to constantly refer to what I call the bible of needlecraft, The Marshall Cavendish Complete Book of Needlecraft. Here's the how-to for some stitches I used...

Blanket Stitch, Fly Stitch and Romanian Stitch.

I measured my wrist and cut two pieces, one for embroidery, one for the "back" so the stitches don't scratch. I used a turquoise "stone" bead and cotton thread to sew a clasp. If I were to make another one, I'd go with crimps, jump rings and toggle clasp, just so the ends look neater and the bracelet holds better.

Repurposed Bag

DIY Flower Pin

You'll need:

-Pieces of fabric. You'll laugh when I tell you where mine are from. The hem of a maxi dress that my mom cut out when re-adjusting her dress, my old voile curtains. Just to say that the more scraps you have, the better off you are, more choices and more designs.

-Beads
-Needle
-Thread
-Scissors
-Paper
-Pencil
-Pin

(1) Cut a square the size of the flower pin you want. (2) Draw a leaf on paper(the shape of your leaf determines your flower design, so play around with it and find what suits your purpose) and cut out to make a stencil

(3) Fold into quarters (4) Pin your stencil

(5) Cut out the leaf, being careful not to snip away the middle part of your square.

(6) You want to obtain a four leaves flower shape on opening the "square". Duplicate this as many times you want

(7) Repeat using a smaller square and a smaller stencil. Again duplicate the shape you obtained

(8) Layer the shapes. Sorry there's no proper picture of what I actually did. But you should get the idea from the above one.

(9) Press all the layers and sew a cross shape in the middle. The tighter you sew it, the more "bud-like" the flower pin will look like. I made mine practically flat.

(10) Then sew the beads to hide the stitches on the front. You can also use felt, buttons, etc.

(11) You can glue/stitch to a pin. Or like me, stitch directly to the "make-up bag" I made from old jeans.

Sorry for the quality of the images, the weather is crappy today, while the flash is blinding.

DIY ruffles cushion cover

.:Made from T-shirt scraps:.

My raw material was these small (approx 25x 25 cm) jersey squares. I chose hot pink for this project, since it'll go well with my decor. And who can resist a girly ruffles pillow in hot pink! But two old xxl tshirts in any color should do.
Obviously, it was a bit of a maths problem figuring out how to make use of these small pieces of fabric. I started by sewing 2 squares together (x2 for the other side of the cushion) to obtain the base for my cushion cover (40cm x 25 cm) and got cracking for the fun part, ruffles. Here's a step by step for making ruffles...

(1) Start by cutting strips, 1 inch large. It's better to scale up or down depending on the size of your cover, etc. For the length of each strip, the basic rule is that the length of the strip should be twice the length of your ruffle.

(2) Set the tension on your sewing machine to lowest. I used white thread so you can see the stiches, but of course use a matching thread color. Stitch down the middle being careful to leave reasonable amount of thread at one end so you can pull. I find that sewing by machine yields a better looking ruffle, which won't disintegrate. But in any case, it should be fine if you use a needle+thread.

(3) Pull on the bottom thread (4) Spread the ruffles along the length of the strip


(5) Pin the first row, leaving a bit extra fabric over the edges (6) Set the tension back to normal, sew over the middle of the ruffle, closest you can to the stitches holding the ruffle.

(7) Repeat until you have enough rows and then you can assemble your cushion cover. I simply sewed it like a pillow case, without any buttons or zippers.

Voilà!!!

P.s: I am no expert at sewing (self-taught). However, I'd advise you to practise making a ruffle or two beforehand. As for fraying, I haven't washed yet, but I'm confident it should stay put. Do sew the rows as close as possible though. Oh, this isn't the first or best tutorial on ruffles cushion covers, still hope you like it:) Don't hesitate to ask if you have any question.